Funding access for Zika not fast enough, MPs told

Academics have said that despite improvements since the Ebola crisis, research funding has not been mobilised quickly enough tackle the world's latest epidemic.

Speaking at a House of Commons Science and Technology Committee evidence session on the UK’s knowledge of the Zika virus, Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health at the University of Oxford, said that there was a huge amount of research to be done and the process for distributing funds could be much quicker.

He added that the fast-tracked £1-million call from the Global Challenges Research Fund was useful, but that by the time the relevant research groups had been set up it would have been several months since the start of the Zika epidemic.